Though the hottest gifts this holiday season are the latest videogame systems, the portable music player landscape is just as crowded with new contenders, including Apple's latest iPod revisions, the Creative Zen V Plus, and Microsoft's Zune.
While most music lovers tend to have chosen a side when it comes to their player, there are few who swear loyalty to any particular brand of headphones, most sticking with the universally awful fidelity and rank feature set of the earbuds that come packed in.
A good set of headphone are a superb gift for the audiophile, and it's with that in mind we tested two of the latest and most unique high end headphones on offer in Canada, Creative's new Zen Aurvana In-Ear Earphones (SRP $149.99) and Logitech's FreePulse Wireless Headphones (SRP $99.99). As a base for quality, we tested them against the Sennheiser PX-100 headphones.
Look Good While Listening Well
Make no mistake about it; these are nice looking sets of headphones. The Freepulse, ignoring the convention that seems to require Bluetooth headphones look both bulky and stupid, are small and stylish in a smoky black. The Aurvana come in a sleek, shiny black and (naturally) are branded to match the Creative Zen V Plus player, but they have no qualms about working with an iPod.
When it comes to features, both the Freepulse and the Aurvana have their unique selling points; the Freepulse offers neodymium drivers for audio, a lightweight carbon spring-steel frame, and uses a Bluetooth 2.0 adapter to allow the music to remain clear at an advertised range of 100 meters, with a battery life of around seven hours.
Meanwhile, the signature of the Aurvana is audio quality, with AuraSeal Sound Isolation technology advertised as eliminating up to 90 percent of ambient noise. Balanced armature drivers deliver a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz, sensitivity of 115dB and noise isolation of up to 20dB, and the package includes six pairs of earbuds, cleaning tool, an airplane adapter (a great idea) and a travel case.
Block Your Ears, You'll Hear Better
In use, however, both pairs of headphones have their quirks. In terms of comfort, it can come down to personal preference; simply: can you stand to have something inside your ear? If not, the Aurvana are not the headphones for you, as the much vaunted AuraSeal Sound Isolation technology literally blocks your ear canal. For me, this proved disorientating, making the headphones all but useless for use when on the move.
In turn, the Freepulse almost feel as if they're being worn upside down. The headphones hang off your ears with rubbery ear hooks and the headband rather uselessly hangs off the base of the headphones most likely resting upon your neck. I therefore found it difficult to get the headphones into a position that was comfortable for me and kept the centre of the speakers held against my ears; due to the shape of the ear hooks the speaker tended to slide forwards. However, once in position, the Freepulse were a perfectly wearable pair of headphones, both on the move and stationary.
Muddy Bass or No Bass at All?
Tested against a variety of music, including jazz, classical and dance, the Aurvana outperformed both the PX100s and the Freepulse in terms of clarity, with some astoundingly crystal clear instruments and vocals, allowing me to easily distinguish between instruments in even the most complex piece.
However, the clarity comes at a cost. Low quality recordings or MP3s with any distortion or hiss sound terrible as there's nothing to mask their flaws. Even worse, there is absolutely no bass to the Aurvana headphones, so rock music sounds universally weak. Even the heaviest of bands sound like the Jesus and Mary Chain playing in a public toilet. Consider it mandatory that your music player of choice has a powerful bass boost if you expect to listen to even the mildest of rock music using the Aurvana headphones.
By comparison, the Freepulse's flaw is a lack of clarity. While very high quality for a pair of Bluetooth headphones, most music has a "muddy"-ness to it that can be obscuring in dense works. A major drop in quality was observed compared to the PX-100s. In spite of this, the distinguishing factor of the Freepulse headphones is that there are no messy cables to deal with, and that is a major selling point. While the headphones do not seem quite reach their promised range, and often stutter when the receiver is behind any sort of obstruction, the freedom to move is enticing. The wireless adapter is also compact enough to not be too obtrusive, though it would still ruin the form factor of an iPod Nano.
Like so much, it depend on your needs
For users who don't mind having blocked ear canals and that hate rock music, the Aurvana offers crystal clear sound in a stylish design at a reasonable price, compared to many in-ear headphones for the audiophile market. By comparison, the Freepulse is better suited to the user who doesn't care as much about audio quality; though they offer enough quality to be more than acceptable in general, particularly when paired to the freedom of wireless.
